In-Flight Entertainment That Begins With Wi-Fi

Airlines that are installing Wi-Fi systems aboard their aircraft may eventually use the equipment to provide passengers with programming to be viewed on laptops or smartphones.

JOE SHARKEY

BY the end of this year, about 1,000 airplanes flying domestic routes will have Wi-Fi service, according to Aircell, the company that has done nearly all of the Wi-Fi installations so far. By the end of next year, 2,000 planes will have the service, Aircell says. That is roughly two-thirds of the mainline domestic fleet, which excludes regional jets.

So Wi-Fi is clearly going to become a new standard, even though there is no compelling evidence that more than a fraction of passengers will pay for the connection. With prices running as much as $12.95 a flight, it is unclear if customers will be receptive to another extra charge.

So how do airlines make this work long-term as a business proposition?

In the initial stage, the goal is just to encourage more business travelers to use Wi-Fi, once they know it’s going to be reliably available. Delta Air Lines, which says it will have more than 300 aircraft converted to Aircell’s Gogo Wi-Fi service by September, plans to offer discounts.

“This summer we’re going to launch a pricing concept where you can buy a monthly membership, with a pricing scheme designed for frequent travelers,” said Ranjan Goswami, Delta’s director of customer experience.

Mr. Goswami wouldn’t say how much a monthly pass would cost. Delta now charges $12.95 for Wi-Fi on flights of more than three hours; $9.95 for flights under three hours and, in a nod to the rapidly growing number of passengers who travel with smartphones enabled for Wi-Fi, $7.95 for hand-held devices on flights of any length.

In-flight Wi-Fi now offers Internet and e-mail connectivity. But airlines are looking at a possible second-generation market: using that connection for enhanced in-flight entertainment.

It costs about $100,000 a plane to install the Aircell system, which adds only 300 pounds of weight. Considering the far higher cost and weight for seatback digital video systems, financially struggling airlines face a tantalizing question.

As more people tote personal hardware on board, whether laptop, netbook, smartphone or whatever, can airlines avoid the cost of installing expensive seatback video?

Aircell’s Wi-Fi system uses a large-capacity server, “so don’t be surprised in the future to see more and more content being added,” said Jack W. Blumenstein, the chief executive. That means movies and other entertainment can be packaged on the ground and piped to the plane for viewing on passengers’ personal electronic devices, he said.

Another company, Row 44, offers a satellite-based system, which is being tested by Southwest Airlines. Wi-Fi sounds like a perfect solution for airlines facing a competitive need to remove those disliked old overhead screens and keep up with competitors who already have seatback video systems.

But it’s not a perfect solution for a customer. Laptops are difficult to use on a tray table in a cramped coach seat, while pocket-size smartphones and similar devices have screens that are roughly the dimensions of a playing card, or smaller.

Airlines wanting to compete in in-flight entertainment will probably have to consider a combination of digital seatback screens and Wi-Fi, said David Cush, chief executive of Virgin America, which recently installed Wi-Fi systems in 26 of its A320s and A319s.

JetBlue set the standard for domestic seatback video, including live satellite television. Some other airlines followed. Delta, for example, has seatback video systems on 100 of its mainline domestic aircraft and is considering whether to eventually install them on the other 200.

“We want to see how Wi-Fi goes, but we really like the results of our TV and video product in-seat,” Mr. Goswami of Delta said.

Most airlines that have Wi-Fi won’t say how many passengers are buying it. Mr. Cush of Virgin America said that 20 to 25 percent of its passengers use it on the San Francisco-Boston route, heavily used by business travelers. Across the board, the average is 12 to 15 percent, he said.

“The next step will be to integrate Wi-Fi into our seatback system,” he said.

“In the future, the devices most people bring onto the airplane are not going to be full-sized screens, they’re going to be BlackBerrys and iPhones,” Mr. Cush said. The company is planning to integrate Wi-Fi into its 9-inch seatback screen. “Sports is one of the most popular features on satellite TV,” he said. “Did you ever try watching a basketball game on a screen the size of a matchbook?”

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